Estemmenosuchus and Edaphosaurus Models

Estemmenosuchus and Edaphosaurus Models

Team members at Everything Dinosaur have posted up an image featuring two of their favourite Permian tetrapods, the sail-backed, herbivorous reptile Edaphosaurus and the “crowned crocodile” Estemmenosuchus. Although these reptiles lived during the Permian geological period, their fossils are not found in the same rock formations and although both animals are classified as members of the Class Synapsida, they are not closely related.

An Illustration of Estemmenosuchus and Edaphosaurus

The CollectA 1:20 scale Estemmenosuchus model and the CollectA Edaphosaurus figure. What a splendid pair of Palaeozoic Era models!

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

CollectA 1:20 Scale Estemmenosuchus and the CollectA Edaphosaurus

Often described as dinosaurs, these two CollectA figures represent vertebrates that lived long before the first dinosaurs evolved. As synapsids, they are actually more closely related to modern mammals than they are to the Dinosauria. The CollectA Deluxe 1:20 scale Estemmenosuchus was introduced in 2018, whilst the CollectA Edaphosaurus came out earlier this year (2019). They are most impressive models and are part of an initiative by CollectA to add more models and replicas of animals that existed before the dinosaurs evolved to their already extensive range of prehistoric animal figures.

The first species assigned to the genus Edaphosaurus may have originated in the Late Carboniferous. Edaphosaurus spp. fossils are known from the southern United States and Europe (notably the Czech Republic and Germany). In contrast, Estemmenosuchus fossil material, as far as we at Everything Dinosaur know, comes from the Perm region of Russia. It is from this region of Russia that the geological period – the Permian was named.

The image (above), depicts two splendid CollectA figures, the company has been praised for introducing more replicas of Palaeozoic animals into its model range, but based on the current fossil record, such a meeting between these two animals never took place. Estemmenosuchus was geographically and chronologically separated from those species assigned to the Edaphosaurus genus.

In answer to a query raised by one of Everything Dinosaur’s customers, the CollectA Deluxe Estemmenosuchus model does indeed have an articulated jaw.